I have tried (installed) both amd/ati proprietary included in mint "additional drivers" and also the latest one from the amd website (12.6). both of them make graphic updates slower than before and cpu usage of cinnamon process very high. especially when window updates occur.

"tear free" is now on.the window movement/transitions and animations are now smooth.but the main problem with high cpu usage still remains. especially when window updates/redraws are needed.cinnamon is almost always the most cpu consuming app in the list.

here is some examples (on ATI 5750 + intel core2 quad cpu):running glxgears (60fps): glxgears=100% cpu, cinnamon 92%,... all the timemoving around in the cinnamon's main menu: cinnamon - 200~240% cpumoving a single nautilus window around on the desktop: 148% cpua single terminal window is open (with blinking cursor) : 36% cpu

I have the exact same problem. I am running i7 930 with ati 5970 with proprietary drivers. The cinnamon always takes about 40% of CPU usage in idle. The ui looks really nice, but it feels laggy. To me, this is one last thing that prevent me from migrating. Any solutions?

chinux23 wrote:I have the exact same problem. I am running i7 930 with ati 5970 with proprietary drivers. The cinnamon always takes about 40% of CPU usage in idle. The ui looks really nice, but it feels laggy. To me, this is one last thing that prevent me from migrating. Any solutions?

yeah, default opensource drivers works, but they only support opengl2.1. I need more advanced driver features like opengl3,4+ support and better graphics performance which the official drivers only provide.

chinux23 wrote:I have the exact same problem. I am running i7 930 with ati 5970 with proprietary drivers. The cinnamon always takes about 40% of CPU usage in idle. The ui looks really nice, but it feels laggy. To me, this is one last thing that prevent me from migrating. Any solutions?

yeah, default opensource drivers works, but they only support opengl2.1. I need more advanced driver features like opengl3,4+ support and better graphics performance which the official drivers only provide.

Yep I have the same issue here. I have a Phenom 11 quad 965 and a radeon 6870. I have noticed cores one and three at or close to 100% whilst practically idle, generally they sit around the 40 to 50% mark. (just chromium and system monitor open). Moving windows around the desktop is very laggy even with "tear free" option.

confirming the presence of the issue:tried these drivers:1)ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX drivers(post release updates)2)ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX drivers3)amd-driver-installer-12.6-legacy-x86.x86_64 (downloaded from amd site)all of these lead to very laggy graphic performance, like when one tries to run CRYSIS on onboard graphics.The only driver that works relatively smooth is the open-source radeon, provided by default in mint13.

Maybe worth trying Kde? Dunno if it's the desktop but I have Mint 13 kde Ati 4550 hd with core2duo 2.8 ghz and typically about 5% cpu load when idle. Using ati's propriety drivers. Videos do have tearing if "Tear free desktop" is turned off but no problems when turned on.